The Senator John Heinz History Center – the Smithsonian’s home in Pittsburgh – will launch the first installment of a new public program series with “The Story of Our Lives: Why Tell Family Stories?” on Wednesday, July 20, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The program is presented by the museum’s Detre Library & Archives.
The series, “The Story of Our Lives,” seeks to reveal new ways of thinking about who you are, why your family matters, and how the work of family storytelling is essential. The first of the series, “Why Tell Family Stories,” welcomes Dr. Robyn Fivush, a nationally renowned scientist, and Njaimeh Njie, one of Pittsburgh’s most engaging multimedia artists, to discuss how telling family stories can positively impact people and society.
Dr. Fivush and Njie will unpack how sharing family history can inspire families to understand their roots and lead honest conversations. Dr. Fivush, a professor of psychology, studies reminiscing and sharing family stories and will discuss their benefits in developing emotionally resilient children. Multimedia artist Njie will share how her use of images and documents of family and neighborhood history honors everyday experiences and sparks visual gateways into the past.
“The Story of Our Lives: Why Tell Family Stories?” is a hybrid program. Attendees can participate either online or in person at the Heinz History Center. Please register online. Live captioning will be provided for this program. For more information or to request additional accommodations, please contact Sierra Green at sgreen@heinzhistorycenter.org.
Upcoming programs in the new “The Story of Our Lives” series by the Detre Library & Archives will be posted on the events page at heinzhistorycenter.org/events. Each program will explore the big questions of genealogy and offer new insights into the practice of piecing together family history.
ABOUT DR. ROBYN FIVUSH:
Robyn Fivush is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Director of the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Emory University, where she has been on the faculty since 1984. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of The City University of New York in 1983 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California at San Diego from 1983 to 1984. She is a Fellow of both APA and APS. Her research focuses on the social construction of autobiographical memory and the relations among memory, narrative, identity, trauma, and coping. She has published over 150 books, book chapters, and articles, including her most recent book, “Family Narratives and the Development of an Autobiographical Self.”
ABOUT NJAIMEH NJIE:
Njaimeh Njie is a photographer, filmmaker, and multimedia producer. Her practice centers on everyday people, narratives, and landscapes with a particular focus on Black life and how the past shapes the present. Njie is the Founder/Lead Producer of the nonfiction storytelling company Eleven Stanley Productions, and she earned her B.A. in Film and Media Studies from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010.
The Senator John Heinz History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and the largest history museum in Pennsylvania, presents American history with a Western Pennsylvania connection. The History Center and Sports Museum are located at 1212 Smallman Street in the city’s Strip District. The History Center’s family of museums includes the Sports Museum; the Fort Pitt Museum in historic Point State Park; and Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, a National Historic Landmark located in Avella, Pa., in Washington County. More information is available at heinzhistorycenter.org.